"Easy" | ||||||||||
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A-side label of 1977 U.S. vinyl single
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Single by Commodores | ||||||||||
from the album Commodores | ||||||||||
Released | March 18, 1977 | |||||||||
Recorded | 1977 | |||||||||
Genre | Soft rock • pop rock | |||||||||
Length | 4:15 (edit version) 4:48 (album version) |
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Label | Motown | |||||||||
Writer(s) | Lionel Richie | |||||||||
Producer(s) |
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Commodores singles chronology | ||||||||||
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"Easy" | ||||||||||||||
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Single by Faith No More | ||||||||||||||
from the album Angel Dust | ||||||||||||||
Released |
EUR December 29, 1992 USA April 4, 1993 |
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Length | 3:08 | |||||||||||||
Label | Slash | |||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Lionel Richie | |||||||||||||
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Faith No More singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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"Easy" is a song by Commodores for the Motown label, from their fifth studio album, Commodores. Released in March 1977, "Easy" reached #1 on the Billboard R&B chart, and #4 on the Billboard Hot 100. The success of "Easy" paved the way for similar Lionel Richie-composed hit ballads such as "Three Times a Lady" and "Still", and also for Richie's later solo hits.
Richie wrote "Easy" with the intention of it becoming another crossover hit for the group, given the success of a previous single, "Just to Be Close to You", which spent 2 weeks at #1 on the Billboard R&B chart (known as the Hot Soul Singles chart at that time) and peaked at #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop charts in 1976.
The song is noted for a feedback noise, with an echo, that is heard in the bridge of the song. Also, an electric guitar solo dominates the instrumental portion of the song. In addition, the other Commodores are heard singing wordless harmonies during the chorus of the song. Strings and Brass are also featured as well.
The edited version receives the most airplay. The longer version from the album features the chorus being repeated more times, a semitone up, from A-flat major to A major (representing the change from morning to afternoon), a few times before it fades out.
Written by Commodores lead singer Lionel Richie, the song is a slow ballad expressing a man's feelings as he ends a relationship. Rather than being depressed about the break-up, he states that he is instead "easy like Sunday morning"—something which Richie described as evocative of "small Southern towns that die at 11:30pm", such as his own Tuskegee, Alabama.
Faith No More recorded a cover of "Easy" during the studio sessions for Angel Dust, following its repeated performance during live shows, but was released as the final single to the album in late 1992/early 1993. The song was originally played to replace their cover of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs", so the band would break from the typical rock band mould and to spite the heavy metal fans who attended Faith No More's concerts expecting "War Pigs". Bassist Billy Gould said the version was a straightforward cover because "we like ["Easy"] in a painful kind of way. It gives us memories of our childhood".